The weather is back to the usual! With the recent cool weather – which was appreciated by everyone across Singapore – came nonstop rain. And with that came the usual problems like clothes not drying and air-cons in buildings being overly cold.
However, there were bigger problems that lie in issues with urban planning: roads flooded, drains busted, and tunnels rained.
Flooding in the East
The East coast made headlines on Monday morning (Jan 8) when caused flash floods at Jalan Nipah, Paya Lebar Road, the junctions of Sims Avenue and Eunos Road 8 as well as Tanjong Katong Road. The floods were so bad, cars were abandoned on the roads – with water up to as high as the door handle in some cases. The flood lasted from 20-60 minutes.
The floods happened in the early stages of the monsoon surge, which was responsible for the week-long rainy spell, when half of the month’s average rainfall were dumped in just 4 hours. As much of the east coast lies in a low-lying area, it was the worst affected by the rain.
Pipe Explosion
On Tuesday (Jan 16), motorists reported seeing ‘rain’ in the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) tunnel – the result of a burst pipe. A section of the expressway was closed for about two hours to fix the flooding in the tunnel.
This wasn’t the first time a bursting pipe affected traffic – just a day before, on Monday (Jan 15) morning, an underground pipe burst open near TripleOne – and caused the closure of three lanes on Somerset Road.<
PUB has cited that the pipes were not designed to take on that much water, given the recent monsoon surge. But then again, most of these pipes are pretty old.
Tiles Exploding in HDBs
Apparently, cases of exploding tiles in HDB units aren’t new – there have been 2,000 cases reported in the last 2 years. However, with the recent cold spell, there have been 700 cases of popped or dislodged tiles in the first half of January alone. Significant changes (and of course, shoddy workmanship) in temperature can cause more stress to the adhesion between tiles.
From flooded roads and expressway tunnels, it’s a miracle that the MRT tunnels weren’t affected.
